blogging the analog soul of a digital world...

January 2008 Archives

January 1, 2008

manufactured landscapes

Watched this film tonight. Stunning work. Makes me want to go get a large format camera and hit the road. Maybe I will...when I know what I want to say. Right now I'm still finding my voice, but I guess you only do that by doing.

January 2, 2008

not great start

Well, '08 is off to an auspicious start. Typical day at work but the evening brought news that an online friend had passed. Warren (or Early S Man as he was known at Pelican) fought cystic fibrosis for many years. A few days ago friends took up the cause to try and raise $300K to pay for a desperately needed lung transplant. My effort in the cause was to set up a web site, registering the domain and getting the basic thing running. Unfortunately too little, too late. A post appeared late today: "Warren has passed." And that was that. The money collected (we got over $20K in the first 24 hours) will go towards funeral expenses and whatnot. Nobody wants their money back...it won't bring Warren back.

January 3, 2008

hockey time

Well, when you're bleeding cash, what is another couple hundred? A friend popped up with 4 tickets to the Kings game for half face value, 12th row from the ice. Well, considering that I know a lot of people who have never been to a hockey game (in one case, never to a big professional sporting event), I figured why the hell not? This being LA, you can get sushi and good beer (in my case, Red Hook) along with myriad other festive foods. For a price of course, but I don't do this every day. Or even every year. Last hockey game I went to I think I was still working at Claremont and Calvin was knee high to a goal. At any rate, an exciting game, people on their feet for the last 50 seconds when the Kings, down by one, had a powerplay and pulled the goalie for a 2-man advantage. But alas, they couldn't score. And so the faithful went home a bit dour, but hey, this is LA. Sports don't really matter...they're just an excuse to see and be seen, right? Right?!?

January 4, 2008

three times

Tonight it was Hou Hsiao-Hsien's Three Times . Someone has the hots for Chang Chen but he's no Tony Leung. Shu Qi is sassy, but I think I remember her from some more...uh....ribald material. The interwebs is a wonderful thing. Not that I know anything about that. At any rate, a little slow, and the middle "time" was a bit odd. Not sure about going silent but shooting in color. But I'm not the director.

January 5, 2008

wha happened?

So we're supposed to get this super-d-duper mondo storm. Rain all night and morning. Well, the night comes and...nothing. Water works turn off around 10pm. That doesn't bode well for the possibility of lying in bed and drifting off to the sound of rain. Oh well, there's always the next storm.

January 6, 2008

16x9

A little churn and turnover on the tools of the trade. Time to cut another piece, this time in HD. And for the last few years I've tended to crop my stills to 16x9 or 2x1 or something about that. So that sort of begs the question, why capture 4x3 if you're just going to throw all those pixels away? Good question. And despite my brief pondering of 4x5 and "real" film, the reality is that I'm going to shoot digital or likely not shoot (or develop) at all. So now the question is whether a longer warranty and the "red spot" is worth $240. Well, there might be some different processing in there but that is the topic of some conversation. In the end, probably not much difference one way or the other. Whatever I'll actually *use* is the best tool for the job. Slowly paring away the ones I don't. Trying to thin the possessions before the next move. And also to have less "stuff" to deal with. Too much stuff, not enough art. And speaking of art, back to it.

January 8, 2008

black and white

January 10, 2008

jimi

January 9, 2008

transfer

Well, finally a move into the mactel world. My new Macbook Pro showed up, and now the painful process of retiring my trusty 12" Powerbook. Well, actually Calvin will get that laptop (a "non-evil" laptop as he calls it, referring to the old Dell he's been using for the past few years...yes, he started on computers early). The sad thing is that in addition to the stuffed 80gig HD on the laptop, I have my desktop which should also be replaced, with its 2 internal drives and 4 external drives. I've got multiple versions of photos, music, and who knows what else. I'm at about 120 gigs of photos and maybe the same in music. And video? Uggh. So now trying to figure out how to organize and consolidate. I've got the music under control as well as documents and video (although i've got multiple copies of video stuff strewn around). But the photos are a complete mess. Aperture has slowed to a crawl after iPhoto waved the white flag. This is gonna take awhile.

On a positive note, the new laptop is SCREAMING fast, and I can edit with FinalCut Pro on it. Sweet!

January 12, 2008

of art

January 14, 2008

back to back

It had been a nice run of no back or neck issues, but a minor tweak last week flared up into nastiness following a bike ride. The morning was pretty unpleasant, but the afternoon saw a visit to Rica, my chiropractor/sadist. After a serious massage and bending (but not breaking), some electricity, and a crack or four, I was almost as good as new. At least I was upright. So now the couch with heating pad. Well, after multiple loads of laundry, food for the boy and myself, some work, cleaning, blah blah blah.

January 13, 2008

beaching

A stunning day, so why not a ride at the beach? Why thank you, I think I will. A leisurely spin from Santa Monica down to Marina del Rey. Lunch at Killer Shrimp, then back north. My back seems to be a little upset though. And I forgot my camera. Forgot my camera?!?!? wtf is up with that?

January 15, 2008

roland

ahh, Warren Zevon. Like a breath of fresh gunfire...I mean air. They don't write 'em like this any more.

Roland was a warrior from the Land of the Midnight Sun
With a Thompson gun for hire, fighting to be done
The deal was made in Denmark on a dark and stormy day
So he set out for Biafra to join the bloody fray

January 16, 2008

editing with conviction

Coming down to the wire, and it's time to dig in and edit. Really edit. Funny how when a "real" editor hands off a "finished" project, I am loathe to actually mess around with it. Like it is sacrosanct or something. Or that I'll do something wrong and not be able to fix it. But sometimes, things aren't "right", so it has to be fixed. So you just dig in. And it turns out that not only can I fix it, but I can make it better. Sure, I still don't totally know what I'm doing. But who does? And no better way to learn than by doing. It also makes me remember why I changed careers and jumped into digital media in the first place: things always are changing, there always is something to learn, and you can create things right before your eyes. Create. Recreate. Repeat. Peat.

January 17, 2008

house

well crafted

Putting your work out there is always a bit of a gulp-inducing experience. I've put my various art/music available for praise or ridicule for many years. I think the first time was when I was 9 years old, playing "Snoopy and the Red Baron" on guitar at a recital. All four verses...instrumental. Uggh. And I still remember it. There are other shows that stick in my mind, a mix of triumphs and embarrassments. But while my ego may have been tied up in those, it gets a little more intense when your ego is lined up next to your professional cred. Such is the lot once you move into "creative" for a living.

director

January 20, 2008

no edit

I just can't seem to sit down at the computer and work on a side video project. Maybe because I don't really have the concept nailed and there are too many ways to cut it, or just that I don't want to sit and log the footage. Hmm...have to do it some time. Then again there's my day job as well. Work work work...

January 22, 2008

trippin'

A short week, technically, but hectic nonetheless. Beyond the meetings, my beloved 911 is getting reassembled and awaits me to pick her up and drive her back to LA. Looks like a Thursday morning flight north, then somehow get to San Carlos, then drive south. The forecast certainly isn't good...rain over the whole state for the next week or so. But I'm on deadline: have the first event of the '08 season on Sunday. And an incredibly busy weekend with get-togethers, openings, receptions, shooting all day Saturday, and racing/instructing Sunday. Then I can rest. I hope. Well, except for work. Oh yeah...hrm...more to think about.

January 23, 2008

drawers

An unfinished project finally gets finished. After a few mis-steps (um, the face is on upside down) a job well done. And a back well worked, but thankfully a glass of pinot and prone positions fixed it up. Always fun to actually finished a build.

January 24, 2008

cold rain

January 25, 2008

don felix

You can live somewhere like LA and never come even close to sampling all/many/most of the restaurants around. Even in areas you frequent. Back in the day I hung around Los Feliz, making fairly regular stops at Fred 62 and other places on Vermont. But not far from there is Don Felix. Tonight saw a birthday party for someone I just met, well, tonight. Him and about 30 of his friends. Some people have a lot of friends. At any rate, another opportunity to pontificate on the digital/analog chasm with artistic/creative types, and become more convinced that I have to sit my butt in the ground and finish (start? restart?) writing the book. Oh yeah, and the food was great too. Ceviche with really big chunks of fish. Tasty. And thankfully this time I managed to order up some water instead of just drinking wine all night. Who says I can't be taught?

January 26, 2008

opening

A long day into night. Early morning alarm, drive up to Willow Springs to shoot video for POC (on my feet all day getting footage of the driver's clinic), back to LA, change, then off to Santa Monica for the opening reception of "Patriot Acts" at the 18th Street Art Center. More conversation on the digital/analog thing (yeah, yeah...finish writing) but come 9:30pm I was beat. The pieces were great, I met more interesting people (and saw annoying-guy from a pre-xmas party bud thankfully didn't talk to him), and it was a fun change for me...and great to see ST in her element.

January 27, 2008

saved for babies

Today is STS #1, but I'm not running because my car is broke. Unfortunately I had agreed to instruct, and I have a nasty streak of obligation, so I got out of a nice warm bed and headed up to the desert once again. At least it was in relative comfort in the A3. I timed it just right, arriving a few minutes before the driver/instructor assignments were read. And I lucked out - my guy evidently bailed (rain/snow was predicted). I made sure that Mikael didn't need anyone, and headed back to LA...and a hopefully still warm bed. But with a now-free day, what to do? Well, a baby shower of course. Hmm...what's wrong with this picture? At least I got laundry done and finished Kurosawa's "High and Low." I want to remake that film. Something else to write...

January 28, 2008

bassic

I've lost track of the last bass gig I had. Probably some time back in the late summer or early fall with a very cool guitarist Sam Wheadon. We both got busy and I had other fish to fry. Well, out of the blue Sam pinged me and asked if I could play a rehearsal for a jazz gig tonight. I was intending to start back into kung fu tonight, but music wins out. So it was off to a local rehearsal studio (about 5 blocks from me - short commute) and three hours of sight reading tunes, playing behind a good female vocalist. Some interesting tunes I'd never done before (and some I'd never even heard), and no embarrassment on my end. Their regular bass player will be back for the next rehearsal and gig, but I'm on the sub list, so that's a start.

I was reminded once again of one of the things that I dearly love in life - playing live music.

January 29, 2008

wild blue yonder

Well, not me. Instead just the chauffeur service to Burbank airport. I flew out of there last week, and this time on a drop-off. What a convenient place. Well, if you live on that end of town. I have to say that from my apt lax is a lot quicker. But if you're not on the westside, bur rules.

January 30, 2008

photochop

I was tasked (volunteered) with taking a group photo of all the employees at work. We crammed nearly 100 people into our amphitheater on the 6th floor, I set up two small lights from my video light kit, and snapped away with the D70. Running a 12-24 Tokina zoom as wide as possible, I was at about 1/5th of a second shutter speed. Not optimal, but I got some decent shots. The problem is that two key people couldn't make it. Photoshop to the rescue. At first I was going to pass that off to someone else as I've never considered my self much of a photoshop jockey. But I figured what the heck. I snapped individual photos of the two others in the location they would occupy in the photo, and began to whack away with the magic wand.

End result? People who didn't know who was photoshopped in couldn't guess. Cool. This digital stuff is ok...

January 31, 2008

7 is 9

Ok, so I order some custom speaker stands about a month ago. Am very clear about the size of the top plate...the speakers are 7.9" x 13.4". In a perfect world I'd get stands that would match that exactly. And I can...if I want to spend $700. Um, no. But for about 1/3 of that I can get close - the right height (25") and a much better fit than I have on the top plate. Now is 6" x 7". The new ones would be 7" x 10", with a much sturdier base. And so they show up today. But on the outside of the box my name is handwritten next to the following:

9"x10" top plate

Hmm, maybe the writing is wrong. Uhh, it isn't. They made the wrong size. *sigh*.